Showing The Romance of a Medici Warrior by Christopher Hare

Excerpt from The Romance of a Medici Warrior: Being the True Story of Giovanni Delle Bande Nere, to Which Is Added the Life of His Son, Cosimo Grand Duke of Tuscany; A Study in Heredity Of the warrior women whom Italy delights to honour, one stands forth supreme above all others: Caterina Sforza, known to fame as the great Madonna of Forli. She was the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan; was born in 1462, and brought up with tender affection by his mother, Bianca Visconti, until she was eight years old, when, on the marriage of Galeazzo with Bona of Savoy, she, like a dutiful wife of those days, received the child of his mistress Lucrezia into her home as one of her own family. During five years Caterina lived in luxury, and received the elaborate education of the eldest princess of her house, until the first tragedy of her eventful life took place: the murder of her father at the porch of San Stefano, as he was about to hear High Mass on Christmas day, while the anthem rang out: "Sic transit gloria mundi." Before his death, Galeazzo had arranged a marriage for his favourite daughter with Girolamo Riario. the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.